


Unus Pro Anima Me

by actualPrincess



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Demonstuck, F/M, Guns, Rating May Change, Supernatural AU - Freeform, SupernaturalStuck, alcohol mention, blood mention, descriptions of violence, everyone mentioned should be an adult unless stated otherwise, more characters will be added later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-03-15 09:12:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3441596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actualPrincess/pseuds/actualPrincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your name is Jade Harley, when you were little your Grandpa told you about the monsters that walked the earth and taught you how to hunt them.  Trapping demons became a sort of sport for you, especially since your Grandpa's death left you alone.  Catching a low level demon like this one was no problem, and he's been rather cooperative so far.  What's the harm in chatting him up?</p>
<p>Your name is Jade Harley, and you are going to make a big mistake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Let's Make a Deal

Your name is Jade Harley and despite the fact that this is a low class demon you are excited to have caught him without much fuss.  And there he was, sitting as still as he could in the hunters trap. Curled up in a ball arms wrapped around his knees, he wore a long black sweater and gray pants. He was a low class demon, you could tell by his short horns and almost complete lack of eye color.  Far below on the ranks compared to a large portion of other demons, meaning he probably didn't have enough power to even teleport himself away, if he did escape, he would have to go by foot. His face was filled with anger and disappointment at himself but you could see he was nervous and scared in the new situation. His weapon, a sickle, was clipped to the back of his belt, too bad it couldn't help him in this predicament.   You set the shotgun you have been holding down next to you and sit on the floor in front of the trap, you set about tying your long black hair back and beam at the demon across from you.  You tap the floor in front of the demon trap to get his attention, before you start talking.  He glances up at you once then looks away when you make eye contact, scowling, you hear him let out a small groan and your smile falters briefly.  You quickly collect yourself remembering what Grandpa taught you, show no fear!

 

“Hi!” You say cheerfully, he startles a bit then looks up at you, his brow furrowed.

 

“Uh, hello.” His voice is rough, like he yells everything and isn’t used to talking at a normal volume, you think he must be scared.

 

“Yeah I know, demon, hunter,” You point between the two of you, “we’re not really supposed to talk,” You shrug and push your glasses back into place, “but you seem harmless enough!” He rolls his eyes.

 

“Oh gee thanks,” he scowls showing some of his fangs, “my being harmless doesn’t really make me feel better about the situation.”

 

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, I wasn’t trying to be rude!” You smile awkwardly trying to think of something to say, your people skills are a little rusty, “Want something to eat?”  You see his ears perk up a bit through his hair at the mention of food, he looks at you curiously.

 

“Like what?”

 

“Uh, beer, steak, pizza probably,” You count off on your fingers and think for a moment, “I’d have to check for other stuff.”

 

“Anything raw?” He asks.

 

“The steak is raw.” You say glad to have it on hand, you usually leave it as bait, but you can make an exception.

 

“That then.” He curls back up muttering to himself.

“Okie Dokie! Be right back!” You stand up and turn to make your way to the kitchen, you glance back at him, a small pang going through your chest, “What’s your name by the way?”  He hesitates for a moment, you can see him thinking, weighing his options.

 

“It’s Karkat.” He says after a moment.

 

“I’m Jade.” You smile and walk out of the room.  You’re holed up in an abandoned house on the edge of town.  The kitchen that you are currently standing in is just a small room connected to the living room, by an archway, and leading to a dining room farther back.   The whole place is falling apart, but you managed to get the fridge working, not that it would be a problem if it didn’t, you always have a portable refrigerator on you (one of your Grandpa’s best inventions).  You open the fridge and start rummaging through it for the steak and a beer for yourself.  You can feel his eyes on you, moving over your frame and trying to find anything you may have hidden on you.  You look back at him under your arm and catch him staring at you, his eyes peeking out over his knees, he catches your eye and looks away blushing slightly.  You smile and turn back to the fridge, pulling out the package of steak and setting it on the counter.

 

“You want a plate or something?” You call over your shoulder, you feel his eyes on you again.

 

“Sure, that’ll be fine, I guess.”  You pull a plate down from one of the cupboards and start putting steaks from the package on it.  His eyes never leave your back, they don’t feel malicious, just curious.  You wipe your hands on your pants and grab the plate and beer, then turn back and walk through the archway.  You set the plate down in front of him, in the demon trap, and sit down where you were.  You pull the tab on the beer with a crack and take a swig.  He stares from you to the plate of steak, you sigh and nod encouragingly.  He grabs one of the steaks by an edge and sniffs it, before taking a bite.  You watch quietly, taking a few more sips of your drink,  there’s blood dripping down his chin and his sharp teeth slice through the meat easily.  You shudder internally, with how placid he’s been you had almost forgotten he can, and will, rip your throat out.  He glances at you while eating, you make sure to look steady and collected whenever he does.  You grab your shotgun from next to you and start taking it apart to clean.

 

“I don’t have anything else raw, sorry.  Want a beer?” You don’t look up from your gun, checking each piece and setting them next to you with practiced precision.

 

“It’s not really to my taste, thanks anyway.” He says taking another bite of the meat.  You look up quirking a brow questioningly.

 

“Wow,” You go back to what you were doing, swiping a cloth you pulled from your pocket over a few pieces, “You’re awfully polite for a demon.”

 

“I try not to be stupid when I’m in a situation like this.”

“Are you normally stupid?” You say glancing up at him.

 

“No, I’m not…” He trails off, mumbling to himself, you catch a few curses that you recognise.  You look up at him leaning forward slightly.

 

“Of course not, that’s why I caught you.” You tease him, he groans and looks away taking another bite of his food.  You snort quietly, “Sorry just messing with you.”  You straighten up and tighten your pony tail, “You seem pretty ok, maybe I won’t kill you!”

 

“Good to know, oh but let me guess, there’s a catch.” He sneers like he knows something you don’t, a look you’ve always found infuriating.  However, you let it slide.

 

“Uh, yeah, duh! You don’t kill me!”

 

“Well obviously, why the fuck would I do that if you just let me go?” He rolls his eyes, his face becoming more of a frown that a sneer.

 

“It has been attempted before.” You shrug and stretch.

 

“Let me guess, they died.” He sounds sarcastic, you smile at him, taking him a bit off guard.

 

“Some people just don’t respond well to friendship,” You pause thinking, “or bullets.”  You hear him snicker and quickly try to cover it with a cough.

 

“I can imagine so.”

 

“Well either way you’ll be stuck here with me for,” You glance down at your watch, the sun set about an hour ago, “the rest of the night, I suppose.”

 

“I can live with that much I guess.” He curls back into himself, resting his chin on his knees and looking at you.  You note he’s wiped the blood off his chin.

 

“Good! Because it gets super lonely, and it’s been forever since a demon actually had a conversation with me,” You stop thinking, you’ve been doing that a lot, “Tauros or something, major case of Stockholm.”

 

“Oh, I think I know who you’re talking about.  Tavros.” He says.

 

“That’s it! How’s he doing? It got a little awkward near the end.” You say beginning to assemble you now clean gun.

 

“Good, decided surface life wasn’t for him awhile back, works with the hellhounds now.”

 

“Good to know!  So,” You set your assembled gun down next to you with a smile, “which of my baits caught you? Or, was it something else? This is all purely for research, so be honest!”

 

“Not really any bait,” He hesitates and looks away embarrassed, “I hit a trip wire, walking through the woods, I think.”

 

“Ooh, nice.  What were you doing in the woods?” You ask leaning forward and propping your elbows on your knees to hold your head up.

 

“Travelling to new territory.” He says plainly.

 

“Really? How come?”

 

“I can’t just teleport anywhere I want like most demons, it takes too much power, and my last spot was overtaken by a new high class.”  He shrugs like it’s nothing, it’s probably a common occurrence for him.  You make a face, thinking about the high class demons.

 

“I hate those guys, think they can spit in my face and call me a whore.” He looks over at you sympathetically or maybe it’s disbelief that you’ve caught one before.  You glare at the floor, and shake your head to clear it, then look back at him.  It’s weird but, he seems pretty trustworthy so far, despite being a demon.  He seems to trust you enough with the truth at least.  You hesitate for a moment, letting the silence lapse between you two.

 

“You could stay in my area, it’s pretty demon free.” You say, cringing internally at yourself for trying to help a demon, something you regularly hunt.

 

“But...I'll be doing the one thing your supposed to stop demons from doing, making deals, taking souls.”  He says disbelief written all over his face, and seeping into his voice.

 

“Do you really do any of that? You don’t seem the type.” You’re currently trying to rationalize why you even suggested that, there are people not far off, of course he’d be making deals.

 

“I do it when I can, if not, straight back to hell.  And trust me when I tell you, I’m not going back there.”  He’s dead serious, you think to yourself.

 

“Gross,” You flop backwards stretching out on the floor with a sigh, “I don’t really want you to do any of that stuff, maybe I should kill you.”

 

“You could, but it would only send me back to hell,” He sounded nervous, you felt a pang of guilt, “and I could find a way out, I could come back.”

 

You tilt your head to the side to look at him, he’s hugging his knees tightly and staring at you with hard eyes.

“Karkat stop being such a worry wart. I’m not going to kill you!” You say looking at the ceiling quickly when he makes eye contact.

 

“Then what?” He sounds pissed, he’s almost shouting, “You’re just going to keep me fucking locked away here?”  

 

“Well,” You bite your lip nervously, “I could. But, that would be inhumane!”

 

“Then what?” There’s a bite to his voice that makes you want to curl up into a ball or run, instead you shiver, hoping he doesn’t notice.  You know he’s glaring at you, you can feel it.

 

“Alright, idea.” You raise your hand and point towards him. “Want to be a hunter?”

 

“Being a hunter wouldn’t stop demons from coming after me, or you.” He says tired, the edge in his voice ebbing away.

 

“Well you could still get souls, they just wouldn’t really be human! Hey wait,” You sit up suddenly, “You think I can’t handle myself?”

 

“I never said that.” You think he sounds a bit startled by your remark, and he’s definitely less curled into a ball than when you lay down, probably because he was shouting.

 

“because i have been hunting for awhile and let me tell you, i am more than capable of fending off a few demons!”  You say awhile, but it’s more like your whole life.  Grandpa was always happy to introduce you to the family business.

 

“Not a lot of hunters can take a hoard of hellhounds.” He says it like a fact, which it probably is.

 

“You can have the soul of anything we hunt!  That way I don’t have to!”  You think this is a pretty good deal for a low level demon, he gets souls, you get one less demon off the street and a hunting partner.

 

“Monster souls?” He thinks for a second then stares at you, “I never thought of that.”

 

“See! And if you hunt with me, you can stay with me!  I won’t have to kill you if you’re not hurting anyone.”  You’re fairly pleased with yourself for having thought of this.  It’s probably one of your best ideas.

 

“If you want, I can make this a legitimate deal.” He says, ripping you out of your thoughts.  He’s staring at you a little amused by your reaction, and something else, hopeful you think.  You on the other hand are not amused at all.

 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” You growl, “I’m not going to hell Karkat, I’m not on the menu.”

 

“No, no. I'm a lower class so I can go around the rules a little.  Since the amount of power I have isn't enough to give people big things I usually serve under someone for a while, just taking the extra energy their soul creates.  It has a lot of perks actually, for both of us.”  He shrugs and gives you a small smile.  You narrow your eyes at him, he sounds sincere, but you are not one to rush into something as stupid as a deal with a demon.

 

“Sorry if I don’t trust you not to screw me over.” You say.

 

“Fine, don’t trust me,” He stretches his arms over his head with a faint pop, “but with a deal your safety would be ensured, along with mine.”

 

“How about a bit more detail, what exactly happens in this deal? Because there’s no way I’m becoming your little hunter pet.”  

 

“No, more I become your ‘servant’,” he makes little air quotes with his fingers, “if we make a deal, it becomes my job to do what you tell me to.  All you do is give me orders, and I get the spare energy you don’t use anyway.”  He waves his hand dismissively,

“Also other demons will stay away from you because we hold a deal, and they’ll stay away from me because I’m doing my job.  If anything, the extra energy I get from you will boost my power, I might even be able to teleport you places after a while.”

 

“Dude, I kind of need demons to trying to get me so I can kill them.  That does sound pretty sweet though, I still go to hell if I die though right?”  You know about demon deals, hellhounds, dragging the mortal soul to the pits of hell, none of it sounds appealing to you.

 

“Not unless you deserve it,” another shrug, “really you’re just a lunchbox until the contract is up, but one that tells me what to do.”

 

“Hm, alright, I have a few conditions though.  One, don’t ever call me a lunchbox again, or I will end you.” He rolls his eyes.

 

“Fine, I won’t, it was just an example.”

 

“Two, you’re not my servant, you’re my friend.”

 

“Whatever you want to call it.” He says looking at his nails, bored with the whole process.

 

“Three, if I end up in Hell or with hellhounds on me the first thing I’m going to do when I claw my way back up is kill you.” He stops and looks at you.

 

“Understood.”

“I hope you don’t have any problems with me killing other demons.” You say picking at your shirt distractedly.

 

“Not like those assholes would have a problem if you killed me.” He says, “Do we have a deal then?”

 

“One last thing, why are you so keen to make a deal with me? We could always just be partners, then you can leave any time.” You are really only asking in the off chance that you don’t actually have to sell your soul, or bind it, or whatever.

 

“Deals get me more power, and they ensure I won’t be fucked with.”  He frowns, “I’ve had too many threats of being dragged back to not want to make deals.”

 

“I’m going to regret this so much, but” You sigh, worst decision ever, “alright.”

 

“So, a ten year contract then?” He says cracking his knuckles.

 

“Look, I already told you, I’m not getting hellhounds sent after me.” Ten year contracts are bad news, any crossroads contract holder evading hounds will tell you that.

 

“You won’t get fucking hounds sent after you.”  He rolls his eyes with an exasperated sigh.

 

“How exactly are you going to circumvent that?” You’re starting to get a bit tired of this shit, you just want it to be over already.

 

“I told you a deal with me really does not have any major consequences, besides having to deal with me around for the amount of time set.  You only get hellhounds if you sell your soul, you’re not really doing that.”

 

“So the ten years is just how long I have to put up with you?”  Not selling your soul sounds pretty fucking good.

 

“Basically.”

 

“And you promise no funny business.”

 

“Deals are serious fucking business.” He says in a mock serious tone.

 

“Oh my god, this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.” You look towards the kitchen in an attempt to avoid eye contact, when you look back he meets your eye easily, “Prove to me you’re telling the truth.”

 

“Once the contract rules are in place and made it is 100 percent impossible for me to break them.” He smiles, “Demons have to have some sort of moral code.”

 

“Can other demons break the contract?”

 

“No, only you can break the contract, but I have to agree to things like that,” He leans back a bit still unwinding from the ball he was in, “terminating the contract halfway through and such.”

 

“You’ll listen to what I say,” He nods, “and you can’t quit on me?” He nods again.

 

“That’s how it goes.”  You take a deep breath weighing everything in your mind.  It does sound like a good deal, you need a second opinion.

 

“Am I completely stupid to do this Karkat?” He looks at you slightly confused.

 

“If you really think it’s going to go wrong don’t take it.”

 

“I want to know what you think, honest opinion, not salesman honest either.”  He looks at you weighing your statement, weighing you.

 

“I don’t think… it’s that bad.  You don’t have to sell your soul, one more demon out of the way, yada yada.” He says seriously.

 

“I won’t be alone.” You don’t miss the look he gives you, but you don’t need his pity, “Other hunters can’t know.”

 

“With enough energy I can start taking on a human form as camouflage.” He says off hand.

 

“How much energy?  Because I can’t really walk around with a demon in the middle of town, can i?”  You give him a small smile, and he smiles back.

 

“One night’s worth will give me enough to last a day.”

 

“Alright, let’s get this done then.” You stretch again cracking your back, “There’s a haunting a few towns over that needs investigating.”

 

“Fine, are we agreed on the rules?”

 

“No calling me "lunchbox", no sending me to hell, do what I say, friend and partner not servant, you have to look human while on the job,” You pause thinking,  “anything else?”

 

“I get to take all excess energy you make.” He says getting ready to stand up.

 

“What counts as ‘excess’?” You say slightly nervous, he sits back down with a sigh.

 

“The soul is a very powerful energy source and it produces so much a day, you people never use all of it.” He crosses his legs as he explains patiently, “I just take what you don’t use.”

 

“Right, just don’t suck me dry.”

 

“Impossible to say the least, but I’ll do my best not to take too much to where you pass out.” He says.

 

“Good, me being weak and woozy won’t be good for either of us.”

 

“Agreed.”

 

“Alright then, let’s make this happen!” You clap your hands in finality, he doesn’t move, “Right, do I have to let you out or…”

 

“I mean, to seal the deal we have to kiss, it’s whatever works for you.” He says watching as you reach forward and rub out part of the trap.

 

“You’re free to go,” You stare at the rubbed out mark, “if you want to.”  He rolls his shoulders and stretches his arms outside the circle testing it.

 

“Anything to add before we make this final?” He asks.

 

“I’m working off of old blood rules, so no not really,” You pause thinking, “Don’t get stockholm or anything.”  

 

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”  He says blandly.

 

“You can fall in love with me though if you want,” You grin and push your hair back, “I am incredibly attractive after all.”  You catch the beginnings of a laugh which he quickly covers with a coughing fit.

 

“I’ll do my best to contain myself,” He says getting over the coughing, “let’s just seal the deal, alright?”

 

“So eager to be my friend servant.”  You stand up and offer him your hand, he takes it and pulls himself up in front of you.  He’s taller than you thought, he’s got you beat by an inch at least, two max.

 

“Ready for a potentially bad situation whenever you are.” You say cheerfully, he glances around the room nervously, then nods.

“Right,”  He says leaning forward, “a fucking hunter.” You hear him mumble, you’re about to say something when he presses his lips to yours.  You barely have time to register that yes, this is happening, before a surge of energy rushes through you.  You can only assume he’s getting the same reaction, he pulls away and you stand there a little dumbfounded.  The air around you crackles like lightning just struck.

“There, sealed.” He says quietly, still staring at you.

 

“Woah,” He smiles proudly, a little smug, “that was cool! You suck at kissing though. I mean, wow! have you never done that before?”

 

“Wh- I most certainly have!” He crosses his arms angrily, and glares at you half heartedly.

 

“Sure you have.” You tease.  He lets out a low growl, then an angry huff.

 

“You are seriously adorable.” He blushes when you say that, and looks angrily towards the kitchen.  You grin and push your glasses back into place.

 

“Not adorable.” He grumbles.

 

“I can’t wait to see you as a human, I bet you’re super cute!”

 

“Guess you’re just going to have to wait and see.”  You shrug.

 

“Guess so! How do you get energy by the way? I feel like that was probably an important thing to ask.” You say thinking allowed, he laughs slightly.

 

“I’m not an incubus or anything like that, if that’s what you’re asking.  I just have to stick close, now that we have a contract it should just flow to me.” He says with a small smile.

 

“Ok cool! So, we have the rest of the night, what do you know about hunting?” You say already planning for tomorrow.

 

“I know symbols for trapping demons, basically everything you know,” you raise an eyebrow and he looks away, “about demons that is.”

 

“Alright, so nothing on anything else then.” He smiles sheepishly at your comment, scratching the back of his head.

 

“I know silver is a big deal, but yeah not a lot.”  He says still looking away, he really is cute you note.  You sigh, looks like you’ll have to start from the beginning, good thing it’s just a ghost tomorrow.

 

“Grab me a beer from the fridge.” You say turning away, “I’ll go get the book.” Karkat nods and starts making his way over to the fridge.  You bounce over to the front door and grab your backpack off the coat rack.  You set it on the ground and started rifling through it, finally pulling out a large journal as you heard the fridge door close.  You walk to the kitchen and set the book down on the small table you set up in there.  He sets the beer down in front of you as you sit down opening the book on the tab labeled “ghosts.”

 

“So ghosts, that’s what we’ll be going after tomorrow, they’re pretty easy.”  You point to the page as Karkat leans over your shoulder to get a better look.  You take a swig of beer pointing out what you’re saying on the page.

 

“Salt keeps them contained, similar to demons; however to get rid of them you have to get rid of the remains.”

 

“How do you do that?” he says following your finger on the page and soaking up the information.

 

“Salt and burn baby.” You say grinning.

 

“How are we going to find the bones? Are we going to be digging up graves or something?”  He says squinting at the page.

 

“Usually that’s what you have to do, unless the spirit is attached to an object of some sort.”

 

“that doesn’t sound too bad.” He says still reading.

 

“Nope, the hard part is research, that’s what we’re doing tomorrow.”

 

“Oh, uh, ok then.”  He says glancing at you for clarification.

 

“We’ll look through the town archives and ask around town about the house or any strange occurrences.  See usually I do the whole ‘cute agent’ thing, but with you, I’m thinking any home investigations can be as like, a new couple or something. It’ll be easier to ask about the neighborhood and disappearances that way.” You say thinking aloud.

 

“That doesn’t sound too hard.” He says.

 

“Yeah it’s pretty easy, you won’t even have to do much talking until you get the hang of it.” You say, he nods quickly.

 

“That’s perfectly fine with me.” He says.

 

“Tomorrow can be like your training, it’ll be so much fun!” He rolls his eyes.

 

“Alright, whatever you say, hopefully you won't have me work with anything that could be harmful to myself.” He says.

 

“Like what? Holy water? We probably won’t go in churches unless we have to.”  You say looking up at him.

 

“Churches really don’t hurt.”

 

“What counts as harmful to you? I’ll try to avoid it.”

 

“Holy water.  If I wear gloves I can handle it.” He says, you nod.

 

“Noted, I’ll bring gloves for you, probably have some in the car” you say thinking for a moment, “anything else?”

 

“Try not to shout out anything too cryptic it might fuck with me.” He says.

 

“Cryptic how? Because I speak multiple languages and i don’t want you getting fucked up.” You say coyly.

 

“You know what curses will fuck with a demon.” He says exasperated.

 

“Yeah I do. I’ll avoid them if I can, but I’ll warn them if I’m going to use one.” You say smiling at him.

 

“Alright, thanks.” He says smiling back slightly.

 

“I dont think I need to cover anything else. I’ll go over interviewing people tomorrow, but ghosts are pretty basic.  We’ll avoid things that are too nasty until you think you’re strong enough.” You say, he looks back at the book.

 

“Sounds like a  reasonable plan to me.” He mumbles, you look at your watch.  You really didn’t realize how late it was getting, it was already past one.

 

“Do demons need sleep.” You say.

 

“They can sleep, they don’t need it particularly, but if they wanted, it couldn’t hurt.” He says looking at you.

 

“Great.” You say yawning, you stretch your arms over your head with another satisfying crack.  You relax closing the book and tossing the empty beer can into the trash.  “Bedtime, you can sleep too if you want.”

 

“Where?”

 

“How close do you need to be to get energy?” You say thinking.

 

“ten feet or closer is best.” he says.  You shrug.

 

“Whatever, you can sleep with me.” You say pushing out your chair and standing up.  He looks at you his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

 

“I -uh- are you sure?” He says staring at you.

 

“Yeah I don’t care, it’s probably the best decision I’ve made all day to be honest.”  You say stifling another yawn.

 

“Wow. Ok then, lead the way.” He says still looking slightly shocked.

 

“Now, which room did I set up in?” You say, your brain sluggish with sleep.  You walk out of the kitchen and up the stairs to one of the old bedrooms, you hear Karkat following you.  When you get to the room you pull him inside quickly and pour a line of salt in front of the door.

“Just a precaution,” You look over at him, “against anything else, not you. If you have to leave or use the bathroom tell me because you’re sort of trapped.”  You set down the salt and grab a sleeping bag out of the corner of the room.  “We can get a hotel tomorrow.”

 

“I understand, I feel more comfortable with the salt anyway.” He says looking at the windows and door.  He sits down, leaning against the wall as you set out the sleeping bag and sit down on it untying your hair.   You run your fingers through your hair, loosening the tangles, before taking off your glasses and setting them to the side.

 

“Are you going to want a blanket or something?” You say looking over at him.

 

“Do you have an extra one?” He says looking over at where you got your sleeping bag.

 

“Too embarrassed to share?” You tease smiling, you nod at the corner, “There should be another sleeping bag.”

 

“I wouldn’t want to hog it somehow.” He says as he gets up walking over and grabbing the other sleeping bag.  You roll your eyes and pat the space next to you.

 

“Whatever you big baby.”  He walks over to you and sets out the sleeping bag.

 

“Not a baby.” He mumbles lying down.

 

“No you’re not.” You say as you lie back and pull the top of the sleeping bag over you.  He lets out a sigh, rolling to face you and resting his head on his arm and closing his eyes.  You roll onto your side facing him and stare at him, trying to make up your mind.

“Scoot closer I can’t cuddle otherwise.” You say watching his face.  His eye peaks open looking at you.

 

“Uh… cuddle.” He says.

 

“Yes cuddle!” You say pouting and rolling onto your back, “I don’t want my first order to be cuddling, come on!”

 

“Alright fine, we can cuddle. Don’t get upset about it gosh.”  He scoots over an inch or two closer.  You grin and roll back over, you scoot closer and wrap his arm around your shoulders.

 

“Much better!” You sigh happily. You curl up against him and feel him rest his head on the top of yours, closing his eyes again. He wraps his arms around you a little tighter.

 

“Just wake me up if you have to go.” You mumble sleepily.  He hums in agreement keeping his eyes closed and holding you closer to him.  Your breathing quickly evens out as  you fall asleep, wrapping your arms around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This work is based off a lovely RP I had a while ago, unfortunately I never got any info from my partner, but a big thank you to them. Questions? Comments? Fanart? Just wanna say hi? message me at maintaining-sanity.tumblr.com


	2. Alarm goes off at 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dungeons and Dragons should never be played with demons, side effects may include but are not limited to: dead guardians, reoccurring nightmares, trouble sleeping, nausea, and deals with lesser demons.

You’re with Grandpa, somewhere in Washington state. You can feel the weight of a gun in your hand, a knife strapped to your thigh and a pistol hidden in the waistband of your pants. You remember now, Grandpa had found a lead on strange monster activity up here. You’d been skeptical, but you were always eager to hunt with your Grandpa. Your best lead on the case had been from some nerds in their parent’s basement, a Gnoll. The creature matched the description from the victim, the living one, a humanoid hyena hybrid.

That couldn’t be right. That was a monster from a stupid game. This wasn’t just an incident of monsters. You’d looked over your computer, Grandpa was thinking the same thing. Demons. You found out later that it was one of the boys in the basement. Possession was a nasty thing, when you finally exorcised it, the boy cried for hours. It had pulled the monsters out of their game though, and you and Grandpa had to hunt them down. 

It wasn’t too hard, the Gnoll hunted in packs, and was residing in the woods. A good shot to the head would be enough to kill them, the kids had told you. So you and Grandpa had set out for the woods at nightfall, and had tracked the monsters down. You both managed to hold your ground well enough, taking down monsters quickly with your combined skill. You sometimes forgot how old Grandpa actually was, he was just a damn good hunter.

He was too slow.

All you can do is scream as you watch your grandfather get ripped apart but monsters. They’re pulling his skin away from his bones and taking away everything that he is. His blood is pooling around his now collapsed, and crumpled body. You try to run, you try to help him but you can’t move. You can’t do anything but collapse on the ground in a fit of tears as you see blood pooling around his body. The monsters look up from their prey and hiss at you, their eyes glowing with mirth and their disgusting jaws dripping with your grandpa’s life. One of them lurches toward you. You know you should move, get out of the way or fight back, but you can’t. You look up at the impending doom, ready to accept the inevitable, but there’s something touching your head before you’re ripped out of your thoughts.

 

***

 

Your name is Jade Harley and you’re shaking. You’re trying to orient yourself, it’s only an hour or two since you fell asleep, you think. You’re not used to the extra body in bed with you, but it’s something solid to cling to while you try to get through the post nightmare shakes. You glance up at Karkat’s face nervously before burying your face in his chest and hugging him tightly. He gently pats your head and you can hear him making quiet shushing sounds as he does.

“Bad dream” You mumble as an explanation, closing your eyes again to clear your head.

“They’re just dreams, nothing to freak out about.” He says softly, you can hear that’s he’s half asleep. He squeezes you gently and you close your eyes again.

“I know” you sigh, you just want to get through one night without nightmares. It’s not that much to ask. He mumbles something that sounds like assent, but by his breathing you can tell he’s out cold. You keep your eyes closed, listening to the sounds of the house and the person (thing?) beside you. You wonder why you agreed to this, why you wanted Karkat to stay. Other demons had tried striking deals with you, but you never agreed. It was probably because he’s so weak, you decide, drifting off to sleep.

 

***

 

Sunlight is streaming in through the window and hitting your face, despite said face being buried in the crook of a demon’s arm. You blink your eyes open and manage to squirm your hand up to rub sleep out of your eyes. Karkat’s still asleep you figure, judging by the small noises he makes when you move. His arms are still draped around you, granted much looser than when you last were conscious, you probably jostled him a bit when you moved. You stop rubbing your eyes and tilt your head slightly to look up at him. He’s definitely the cutest monster you’ve dealt with. You have to cover your mouth to stifle the giggles that are bubbling up at the absurdity of this situation. You’re practically in bed with a blood thirsty demon, and the demon is cuddling you like you’re a kitten. You manage to wiggle your arms under his, more cuddling seems appropriate. He seems to agree since he curls up around you more, resting his chin on the top of your head.

“I could get used to this.” You mumble, stifling a yawn. You feel him untangle your legs, and stretch out, his arms leaving you. You get a brief flash of chill before he’s hugging you again.  
“Good Morning.” You say, more awake now.

“Hm? Oh, good Morning.” He detaches himself from you again, rolling over onto his back, “Did you’re bad dream come back?” 

You sigh and roll over, grabbing your glasses and pushing them onto your face. “No, I slept fine after that.”

“Good to hear.” He yawns and stretches his arms over his head again, you hear his back pop before he relaxes again. You sit up, waiting for the headrush to subside before pulling your mess of hair over your shoulder and running your hands through it in an attempt to get the knots out. 

“How about you, how’d you sleep?” You say tugging at your hair.

“I slept fine, thanks.” He says, sitting up. You sigh, and pull your hands out of your hair with a tug.

“Do you see a brush anywhere? I always lose it.” You push your hair back behind you and look around the room. Karkat spots it before you do, getting up to retrieve it from your pile of gear. You lean forward bringing your knees up to your chest and resting your head on them.

“Why do I even bother?” Your hair is such a pain. If you don’t keep it up it’s in the way or dirty, and no matter what it’s tangled. You feel more than see Karkat sit down behind you.

“Want me to brush it for you?”

“Fine.” You sigh, sitting up straight. You brush a few strands of hair behind your ear, waiting to feel the harsh pull of the brush. Karkat doesn’t seem to be attacking your hair with the fury that you usually do though. He’s separated a small piece and is brushing the tangles out pretty easily, your hair isn’t being pulled at all really. You feel the brush snag on a knot a few times, but otherwise it’s smooth sailing.  
“How are you doing that?” You ask him about halfway through brushing out your hair.

“With a brush?” he sounds like he’s making fun of you, you’d punch him if he didn’t have a firm grasp on your hair. You settle for rolling your eyes, which he can’t see anyway. You feel him grinning behind you in response.

“No, I meant how are you actually brushing my hair without trying to pull it out, smartass.” You feel him tug your hair, not hard enough to hurt but enough for you to know it was purposeful.

“I’ll have you know I served under a princess for ten years. Huge bitch, really annoying, made me brush her hair three times a day. I lost my head once because I pulled a little too hard. That was fun. In a ‘boil me in oil then throw me out a moving train into fuckyou-ville where the villagers greet you by kicking you in the bulge’ sort of way.” He took a breath, tugging at another knot, “So, I got really good at brushing hair. You know I always seem to get bonded to a princess or something? I don’t know if it’s just that you women can’t resist my devilish good looks or if you’re just more likely to make a deal to get a servant. Maybe their servants were just really shitty. I mean, if they had to ‘hire’ me as one.”

“Sucks to be you, all those powerful women making you do hard labor. Maybe you just have a kink for that.” You joke. You hear him sputter and the brush stops moving through your hair.

“I do not have a- shut the fuck up Jade! What the actual festering fuck! That is just the pinnacle of stupidity right there, the actual top of the bullshit mountain!” He keeps raising his voice with each sentence, and you’re trying really hard to keep from laughing the more worked up he gets.

“Alright, alright. We can worry about bullshit mountain later, just brush my hair.” You say giggling behind your hand. He huffs but goes back to brushing, tugging a little harder out of spite. He talks under his breath while he brushes, the only thing you really understand are the swears, but otherwise it all sounds like hard consonants and growling to you. 

It only takes a couple more minutes of brushing before Karkat’s handing the brush to you over your shoulder.

“Finished with the mess you called hair. I know, I’m amazing no need to thank me.” He says as you run your fingers through your hair.

“Oh my gosh! Karkat!” You pull your hair over your shoulder, it hasn’t been this tangle free in a long time. “You’re the bomb! My hair is so soft!” You can almost feel him radiating smug behind you.

“Well, I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but yes I did save your hair from the darkest pit of tangles and gross-ness. Although considering your job and general humanity, you’ll be disgusting again soon enough.” You roll your eyes at him pulling the hair tie off your wrist and pulling your hair into a ponytail.

“Right, that’s totally not offensive or anything.” You say tightening your ponytail. You shake your head to test it and purposefully hit him in the face, before standing up. Your dream is still fresh in your mind, it’s the same one you’ve been having for a few weeks. You can hear Karkat yelling indignantly, but you tune him out as you think.

“Hey, pack everything up.” You cut him off mid rant. He stiffens and starts doing as you said, mumbling to himself. You open the door, breaking the salt line and head back to the kitchen. If Karkat wasn’t here, would you have been pulled out of the dream so quickly? Usually you have to kill the Gnoll again before you wake up. You grab everything out of the fridge, and put it in Grandpa’s refrigerator so you can take it with you. Clean up is pretty routine in old houses, you let yourself go on autopilot as you go through it. Maybe you can get Karkat to pull you out sooner. You’ll talk to him about it later. You hear him coming down the stairs and make his way past you to the door, there’s a thump as he sets everything down in front of it. Then the floorboards creak letting you know he’s coming into the kitchen. You take a deep breath and turn to face him with a smile.

“Everything’s ready to go.” He says, jerking his head towards the door. You nod and grab the refrigerator, tucking it under your arm and walking past him.

“It should be a short drive to the next town over, maybe an hour or so. I can tell you what I know about the haunting as we drive. Then in town I we can start to fill in the finer details and hopefully torch the corpse before we go to bed.” You tell him. He follows you to the door and watches you pick up a few of the things he brought from the room. You sigh, hefting your backpack over one shoulder and motion for him to grab the rest, then open the door and head out to your car. You heard an appreciative whistle from behind you as Karkat took in your baby.

You’d inherited the car from Grandpa. A black 1959 cadillac, bought new with money he’d made from poker one night. He’d tricked it out with hunter gear and upgraded the engine whenever he had time. Grandpa had taught you everything you knew about fixing up the old car and you intended to keep it around as long as possible. She was still perfectly good and with the best engine you could find, she ran like a dream. Karkat was right to be impressed, what with the amount of work both you and Grandpa had put into her.

You popped the trunk and set what you were carrying over the false bottom that hid your weapons cache. Karkat followed your lead, coming to stand next to you and setting down his items, before you shut the trunk. You both quietly got into the car, you driving and Karkat riding in the passenger seat.

“Seat belt.” You said sticking the keys in the ignition and fiddling with the ipod jack you’d installed. You fastened your seat belt across your chest, and heard a click next to you as Karkat did the same.

“So,” He said nonchalantly, not looking at you, “want to talk about your nightmare, or…” You turned on the car, music blasting through the speakers and cutting him off.

“Alarm goes off at seven and you start uptown!” You sing loudly, and pull out of the dirt path in front of the house, heading to the road.

“Put in my eight hours, to the powers that have always been.” You hear Karkat grumble beside you. You look both ways before turning onto paved road, and roll the windows down, speeding towards the next town.

“So this ghost, right?” You start, turning the music down so you can talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shorter chapter and the long-ish absence. Next time we're going to be on the case and investigating, so that should be fun. I'm going to try and update at least once a month so bear with me. Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed!


	3. Blood in the Walls (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every good paranormal investigation starts with a balanced breakfast, and some playful banter. After all everyone needs their morning coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me I know this chapter is a tad later than I promised! I've been busy with school and trying to get moved that I haven't really had time to give this story the time it deserves. Still, a big thanks to everyone for their support.

September 3, 2012: Nebraska

A group of people stand outside a dark abandoned house. The Breeze blows and moves the house slightly, shaking it to the foundation. Hinges creak, paint peels off the siding, a boy holding a flashlight finishes his ghost story.

“Legend says, that on stormy nights, you can still see her walking in the windows. Her candle light glinting off the panes of glass and her neckline bloody from where her husband… cut her throat!” The boy says jumping at the girl next to him. Her scream quickly dissolving into giggles as the rest of their group rolls their eyes.

“Come on Jack everyone knows the stupid legend, let’s just get in the damn house.” One of the other boys says, the rest nodding in agreement. 

“Hey man, Katie’s from out of town, just wanted to get her up to speed, you know?” Jack says flashing a smile at her.

“Yeah, that’s not the only thing you want to get her up to.” One of the other girls says under her breath, making the boys next to her snort. Jack narrowed his eyes at her, and she quickly looked away. He felt Katie take hold of his hand.

“It’s ok, I don’t mind.” She said quietly. Jack grinned and turned on his flashlight. The others followed suit.

“Into the house!” Jack announced leading the group of friends into the manor.

***

It was dark inside, almost pitch black. The flashlights just barely cutting through it all. Katie kept her grip on Jack’s hand as the group walked through the house. She wasn’t scared, not really, but if she wanted to get closer to Jack it couldn’t hurt to pretend. She was new to town, had come here for the college nearby, and her friends had suggested spending a night in the ghost house. Fairly typical, Katie wasn’t one to believe in the superstitious, just old houses practically falling apart. She tugged on Jack’s hand, leaning close to whisper in his ear.

“Let’s ditch these guys and find somewhere quiet.” She felt him nod and they drifted down a different hallway than the others, guided only by the dim light from their flashlights. They walked for a little while and turned into one of the open doorways, Katie let go of Jack’s hand and turned to face him.

There was no one there.

“Jack?” she whispered. “Jack? Where’d you go?”

She saw the light of a flashlight out in the hallway and jogged towards it, nearly running into the others.

“Katie? Where’s Jack?” One of the guys asked, fuck, it was too dark she couldn’t make out his face. She shook her head.

“I don’t know, one minute he was with me, the next-” She was cut off by a scream. One of the guys started running in the direction of the noise, the others on his heels yelling for Jack.

They all stopped in an open doorway, the first boy’s flashlight already shining under the swinging body of their friend as he hung from the ceiling.

***

"In other news it has been a week since Jack Adrian committed suicide, and today we have an interview with one of the people who was with him, moments before his death."

You snap your fingers in front of Karkat's face to get his attention. His eyes snapping to your face from where they had been watching over your shoulder.

"Hey! Focus!" You say, you had been trying to explain what the both of you would be doing today but it was pretty obvious he wasn't listening.

"Sorry." He grumbled, looking down at his coffee. Karkat managed to soak up enough energy last night you figure, you hadn’t noticed but he does look significantly more human. The horns are gone, so’s the greyish color of his skin and the fangs. His colorless eyes are brown, almost red in the right light you think, and the grey sick looking skin is now a healthy tan only a shade lighter than your own. At least he kept the dark hair. You have to admit, Karkat could almost be attractive, you know, if you didn’t know he was a hell demon living off soul juice.

“It’s fine.” You turn back to the tv to check what he was watching, then look back to him frowning, “That’s what we’re here for. So no one else gets hurt.”

He nods understandingly, glancing at the television again.

“So, that kid was part of this?” He says. You sigh, looking out the window with a short nod.

“Yeah it’s, well, not unusual. This happens all the time.” It’s not something you like, but it’s not something anyone can prevent completely.

“What the fuck?” You look at him and raise one of your eyebrows questioningly.

“Come again?”

“This happens all the time and hunters are the only humans that give two shits? No one else in the entire disgusting (no offense) human population has any desire to do some fucking research and figure this shit out?” He’s starting to raise his voice. You glance towards the waitress behind the counter, trying to signal with your hands for Karkat to keep his voice down. He drops his volume down, whispering angrily, “Why are you the only person that gives a shitbagging vile groinshit of a fuck about this?”

“I’m not and you know that.” You whisper back leaning forward angrily, before straightening up and going back to your normal speaking voice. “Anyway! From what I can dig up the story behind the haunting is pretty well known in the town and even outside of it. Around 1970 a newly wed couple moved into a manor not too far from here. Their marriage started going south and one night the husband and wife got into a fight, resulting in the murder of the wife via slit throat. Now the body was never recovered from the house, and the only thing we have to work off of is a local legend that she’s buried somewhere within the house. We have to find it, salt it and burn it.”

“Where does the kid fit into this?” Karkat asked.

“Unfortunately… the wife is fairly vengeful. A few days after the wife was murdered, the husband hung himself. This was... not uncommon for someone who just murdered their spouse; however, a few years late after a new couple had moved in, that husband hung himself. Then, it happened again, and a few years later again. I figure that, the ghost of the wife is targeting these men out of malice for her husband.” You say seriously.

“Why do you think the suicides are her fault?”

“None of them were reported to show any signs of depression, and there were no notes.” You say. Karkat looks over your shoulder at the screen. You glance back too. There’s a girl on the screen that you assume is one of the dead kid’s friends, she’s crying about him. You both watch for a minute, listening to the girl talk about Jack.

“He was always smiling, we never thought he would…” the girl cut herself off with a sob as the camera cut back to the reporters. You feel Karkat tense across from you.

“She could have helped him.” He said lowly. You don’t look at him, continuing to watch the screen.

“What could she have done.” It wasn’t a question, honestly, you wanted to gauge his answer. You know, you can’t save everyone.

“Call a hunter, stay with him, get him down.” You snort and feel him turn to look at you.

“Hunters aren’t exactly under the services section in the phonebook.” You turn back to him, to meet his eye. “And I’d bet good money, he was dead when they found him.”

“Stay with him then, if she was with him-” You cut him off.

“I’m not debating this with you. If there was something she could have done I’m sure she would have done it. Sometimes circumstances just work against you.”

“Circumstances being vengeful spirits.”

“In this case, yes.” He stares at you for a moment.

“Are there ever circumstances where…” You nod, it’s rare, but sometimes places are just unlucky.

“Any other urgent questions?” You say, smiling at the waitress who brings you your food. Karkat takes a sip of his coffee, black, you think he’s trying to look tough since he grimaces slightly as he sips.

“You never answered my question about last night.” He says over the brim of his mug.

“I never let you finish asking said question either.” You respond, starting to cut into your breakfast.

“Are you going to now?” He asks, trying to steal a piece of your bacon. You swat his hand away and stuff the piece into your mouth with a grin.

“Ask away, but I can’t guarantee the answer.” You say around the food in your mouth, you raise your hand to cover your mouth like a polite adult.

“What was your nightmare last night?”

“Standard hunter stuff.” You shovel some food into your mouth, washing it down with your own coffee. You can almost hear the rage that is building up in the demon across from you.

“THAT DOESN’T ANSWER MY-” You raise your hand to stop him and he shuts his mouth immediately.

“Inside voice when we’re in public.” Karkat opens his mouth to say something but you cut him off, “That’s an order.”

“I’ve been using an inside voice since I met you.” He nearly spits, glaring at you.

“I know and you’ve been doing so good.” You coo patronizingly. You mentally pat yourself on the back when you see him get even more angry.

“Crotchstaining braindead bulgesucking shameful bullshit sorry sack of shit, fuck off Jade. Fuck right off. Whatever, I don’t care, let’s just not tell Karkat anything! What a spectacular fucking idea that is. Wow A+, blue ribbon, feel free to hoist my stuffed brain box onto the wall like you would one of your human deer. How else will people know that you’ve done something so incredibly brilliant if you don’t have some sort of trophy from the stupid shitty excursion. Inside voice my ass, you let me yell right this instant Harley or I swear to fuck I will teleport right out of here.” He takes a breath, ready to launch into another hissy fit.

“Nope, you’re staying right here Mr. Crabbypants.” He deflates a little and you smile at him.

“Fuck you.”

“We have to investigate today, so that’ll have to go on the backburner.”

“Do you honestly think I’d sleep with something as disgusting as a human?” He says, obviously Mr. Crabbypants is yet to leave the building.

“Do you honestly think I’d want to sleep with a demon? Even one that looks human?” You calmly retort. Karkat slumps back against the booth, looking out the window angrily. Score one for Harley.

“So how are we interviewing people?” He mumbles.

“Investigative partners from the federal bureau, we’ll need to run a few errands before we get started though.” You follow his gaze out the window, but don’t notice anything interesting. You go back to your food, taking a couple bites and looking around the diner.

“Errands such as?”

“Copy shop for a fake ID, and we need to get you different clothes.”

“My clothes are fine.”

“Mmm, nope! We’re FBI agents, you need a suit.”

“Why are we FBI agents if it’s just local lore?”

“Because these killings have been going on for years, we -the FBI- think someone may be compelling the kids to kill themselves.”

“Do you honestly think people will believe that bullshit?” Karkat says looking at you incredulously. You shrug and nod.

“Well yeah, they’ve believed worse. Not to mention people are desperate for answers when they lose someone close.” You hoped that you hadn’t been as gullible when Grandpa died.

“Were you?” You shoot him a look, half glare, half question. “You’re a hunter, I figure you’ve lost some people.”

“It’s not really your business Karkat.” He holds up his hands defensively.

“Fine, obviously your family and loved ones are numerous and in perfect health.” You feel your eye twitch and you smile at him again.

“You don’t want to run into my family, they can be a little trigger happy.” You see Karkat twitch across from you. You hadn’t even thought about the possibility of running into family. Jake would probably be keen to shoot Karkat on sight. Your cousin has always been a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy.

“Right. I’d be happy to keep away from them then.” Karkat grumbles.

“Might not be that easy, but we’ll try. There’s only so many hunters and a hell of a lot more things to hunt.”

“They won’t be able to tell I’m a demon though.” He says, you shrug. There is your one hunter friend, but the chances of running into her are maybe a thousand to one. She set up shop as a psychic a few years ago, and hasn’t hunted since.

“My cousin, no. That won’t stop him from threatening to shoot you.” You think for a moment, “Actually scratch that, it won’t stop him from actually shooting you.”

“Huh, well, I guess we’re just never going to see your cousin ever.” Karkat say casually, you sense he’d like to be shouting at you right now. 

“Aw come on.” You whine, with an exaggerated pout, “Never say never!”

“You realize that was a command right?” He says raising a brow.

“What to never say never?” You mimic his expression.

“Yeah I can’t physically say… that anymore.” He says narrowing his eyes as your smile grows.

“What if I told you never to say fuck?” You can’t help but giggle, and he glares at you even more.

“I would fucking murder you.” Karkat hisses, he must be nearly dying with not being able to yell. You feel kind of bad, but you don't want to draw too much attention.

"Well then we better get a suit, you'll need it for the funeral." You say digging into your pocket and pulling out a wad of cash and some change. You set it on the table and stand up, you're done with your food and Karkat's pretty much done with his coffee. He tosses the rest of the drink back and frowns.

"Don't you want to wait for your change?" He says standing. You shake your head.

"Nope! That's exact change plus tip!" You head towards the door hearing Karkat speed walk to catch up with you.

"There's like forty bucks on the table, breakfast couldn't have been more than ten." His volume increased slightly as you push open the door to the diner. He's probably going to start yelling again once you're in the car.

"Yeah and our waitress needs the tip more than I need random cash." You say pulling out your phone. You know you saw a formal wear shop around somewhere, but you'd like an address. You can almost hear Karkat trying to come up with a smartass response before thinking better of it. Your phone finally loads a solid address for you and you start back to your car, Karkat trailing close behind.

"Where do you even get money? No one pays you for hunting, right?" Karkat asks, finally getting fed up and walking beside you. You shrug and point at your car to tell him to get in.

"Of course they don't, this is more of a... public service!" You hand Karkat your phone to give you directions and go to the driver's side. "No I make money in poker games and that sort of stuff."

"There's no way you make enough money to pay for motels and food through gambling." He says incredulously, sliding into the passenger's seat.

"Oh god no, well not usually." You grin at Karkat as you buckle your seatbelt. "But I've been kicked out of several casinos for counting cards and just winning too much in general. Not to mention hunters suck at poker when there's a pretty girl to distract them."

Karkat stares at you for a moment before bursting with laughter, he covers his mouth with his hand to try and stop it. You figure he probably doesn't laugh enough, since his voice is still a little rough around the edges, but it's full and genuine and you can't help but smile a little brighter.

"Jade Harley you," he shakes his head smiling slightly, "well, you're not as stupid as I thought."

"Why thank you horrible demon monster, you're still just as stupid as I thought." You see him roll his eyes as you pull out of the lot.

"Fuckass." Karkat mumbles looking out the window. You snort.

"Fuckass?"

"Shut up."


	4. Blood in the Walls (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat is a dick and Jade doesn't take his shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh I am so sorry this took so long, but we're back.

"What?" You're currently at a suit rental trying to match the colors on suits. You don't even know how you got into this conversation.

"I hate you." Karkat says in that voice that tells you he's rather be yelling. "I hate that a disgusting human like you has more power than me, and has power over me. I wish I could go back in time and punch some sense into past me because he is a fucking idiot and shouldn't be making decisions." You stare at Karkat in mild shock, you thought things had been going so well. He nearly rips a suit jacket pulling it off the rack, it's a perfect match to the one you're holding.

"Then why were you so nice to me?" 

"Energy output fluctuates with your mood, you uneducated piece of shit. Subservience gave me an extra kick." He grabs the rest of the suit, and takes it up to the front desk as you gape like a fish. Is Karkat being serious right now? Because he's starting to piss you off. You were hoping you two were friends for crying out loud! 

"How do you plan to pay for that?" You ask glaring at him. To your surprise he pulls out your wallet and hands some money to the cashier.

"You need to be more observant." You can feel your face starting to turn red, what the hell is he doing? He mumbles something, but it sounds more like a growl, too many consonants and clipped 'r's. You recognize it as one of the many demonic languages you've heard. You can only assume he's talking about you.

"Christo." You nearly spit the word out of your mouth, and see Karkat flinch. He turns to face you, glaring daggers and you can't help but smile. You have power over him, power that others might not have. You are Jade Harley and you are not going to be this demon's friend.

"You will address me with some respect." You have his attention, no more messing around. If he's going to be a whiny little prick, you're going to be the boss.

"Of course," he sneers, " your majesty." You can't help but bristle, even knowing the satisfaction it'll give Karkat. You grab the front of Karkat's shirt and drag him out of the store.

"You will remain silent until I tell you otherwise. Is that clear?" He opens his mouth to say something, scowls and looks away. You have a feeling the scowl is going to be a permanent feature. "Good, I think I like you much better like this."

You rub your face, suddenly very tired. Out of the corner of your eye you see Karkat look slightly concerned, but it’s gone almost as soon as you see it. Running through your list of possible reasons you conclude it’s probably a reflex from years of servitude. If you had to wait on the beck and call of moody princesses you’d probably be concerned about the next possible command too. No, you will not try and sympathize with this creature. He is evil and wants nothing to do with you. This is not your friend, and you’re supposed to be pissed off at him. His silence is starting to piss you off more than his talking. Mainly, because he’s started to take every opportunity to make obscene gestures at you.

“Would you stop that?” You grumble just loud enough for Karkat to hear. He flips you off, then points with his right hand, making a ‘c’ shape and moving it down over his index finger on his right hand. He loosely gestures to himself afterwards, scowl still in place. It takes you a moment to register the motions as sign language.

“Fuck you, make me.”

You turn to face him touching the side of your forehead with the tips of your fingers, your hand in a flat shape, then fingerspelling ‘a’ ‘s’ ‘l’. 

“I know ASL,” You press your thumb and index finger together in a circle and move it behind you, “asshole.”

Karkat actually looks relatively impressed. He points at you, and uses the finger to make a small circle twice in front of his mouth, then points at you again. His expression a nice mixture of questioning and anger.

“You’re hearing, right?”

You roll your eyes, about to sign back before remembering you’re not the one who can’t speak.

“No talking when stalking, and my cousin is deaf from his guns.” You frown. “Why are you talking? I said no talking.”

Karkat rolls his eyes and fingerspells deliberate and slow, like Grandpa used to when you were little.

“Silent.” Your eyes narrow as what he means sinks in.

“If you’re going to talk-”

“HARLEY I SWEAR TO GOD I WOULD MURDER YOU IN YOUR SLEEP IF I COULD.” He screams cutting you off. His voice almost sounds normal when he screams, all the rusty edges gone. “OH MY GOD, YOUR GOD, WHATEVER. YOU THINK SO LOUD THE WHOLE BLOCK CAN PROBABLY HEAR YOU. WELL ONLY IF THEY CAN READ YOUR MIND BUT THEY’D BE IDIOTS TO DO SO BECAUSE THEY’D JUST BE LISTENING TO YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT ME. WHICH IS TOTALLY UNDERSTANDABLE BUT ALSO RUDE, HARLEY. AND DO YOU EVEN LISTEN TO YOURSELF HALF THE TIME?” He takes a breath, fisting his hands in his hair and screaming at the ground.

“Uh.” You stare at him, speechless. That was really loud, and you can feel eyes on you. Which is not something that should happen to a hunter. In your head you’re telling yourself to bail, just turn tail and run. Karkat seems to be quieting down, his screaming is starting to stop at least.

“Oh sweet titty fucking christ that felt good.”

“You can read my mind?” Karkat looks up like he forgot you were there.

“Weakly but yeah. The longer we’re bound by the contract the more attached to you I get.” He sees you grimace and rolls his eyes. “Not emotionally dipshit. I can’t believe you’re a hunter. I have your energy in me as fuel, that doesn’t come without side effects.”

“So, the more energy you get the more you’ll be able to read my mind.” You say carefully.

“It’s really all proximity at the moment but yeah.” He shrugs and you get that feeling again, fight or flight. You take a step back, ready to get far enough away that Karkat can’t do whatever it is he’s doing. He grabs your arm, looking angry. “Jade, calm down.”

You can’t calm down, someone is listening to your thoughts. Someone can get into your head. What else can he do to your head? How far can he prod at your brain right now, and what’s going to happen when he has more power? Your chest starts tightening, you feel powerless. You can see Karkat starting to look scared.

“Deep breaths Harley, you’re having a-.” His voice is being drowned out by the ringing in your ears. Karkat’s holding your shoulders and you grip his forearms to ground yourself. Black is starting to fuzz around the edges of your vision, as you take a deep breath. You see a flash of blood in your line of sight, and your breath hitches.

You’ve seen this before, something on the border of memory and dream. You recognize the demon now, a look of panic in his eyes. You look down at your hands, you don’t want to, you already know what’s coming. There’s blood coating them, there’s blood on your stomach. You feel nearly overcome with exhaustion, and he’s running towards you shouting.

“Harley? Harley?! Goddamn it, JADE!” Your eyes snap back into focus, and you cough, gasping as you try and pull air into your lungs. Karkat shakes your shoulders slightly. “Get a hold of yourself hunter!”

“I’m fine. I’m good.” You take another deep breath and let go of Karkat’s arms, stepping out of his reach.

“What were you-” He cuts himself off, “HARLEY WHAT THE FUCK?”

“What?” You’re still orienting yourself, so it’s not your fault if you stare at Karkat a little dazed.

“THAT WAS FUCKING TERRIFYING. I FELT THAT SHIT TOO, DO YOU KNOW HOW INCONSIDERATE THAT IS?”

“You, YOU THINK IT’S BAD FOR YOU?” You yell back at him. “YOU’RE ONLY GETTING IT SECOND HAND! AND STOP READING MY MIND.”

“I DON’T WANT TO READ YOUR MIND ANYWAY, IT’S WEIRD!” You scoff and roll your eyes, turning to walk away. You stumble slightly and think you feel Karkat’s hand hover at your elbow for a second.

“Anyway, I’m assuming you registered what I was going to say earlier, even though I only thought it.”

“Why the fuck would I be talking if I hadn’t? ‘If you’re going to talk, you might as well do it out loud.’ Nice one Harley, really sticking it to me.” Karkat says settling back into being the sack of shit you figure he’s always been. God, why’d you agree to this deal without knowing the demon?

“Probably because you’re stupid, naive, and optimistic.” Karkat says offhandedly.

“I thought I said no reading my mind.” You say through gritted teeth. You need to punch something, you still feel a little weak.

“I’m not. I’m just that fucking smart, shitsack, you were thinking about why you took my deal. Don’t worry everyone goes through buyer’s remorse at some point. You were just so eager to have a friend that wouldn’t leave you, you agreed as quickly as-” You spin around and punch Karkat square in the stomach. You can feel it knock the wind out of him, perfect. He doubles over and sucks in a breath.

“Bulgehumping cock nipple, God fucking DAMNIT HARLEY.” He groans and straightens back up. If looks could kill, you think as he glares at you. You sort of regret doing that. You really regret doing that.

“Oh my gosh, Karkat I’m so sorry!” He holds a hand up to stop you.

“No, shut up, I deserved that. Just, caught me a bit off guard.” He sighs and runs a hand through his hair, then motions for you to continue walking.

“I shouldn’t have punched you, are you ok?” You say nervously, this isn’t how you treat friends. Even if Karkat said he hated you, and is a demon. In your defense you have been hunting them you’re whole life.

“I’m fine Harley, it’s not like you can really do much.” He shoos you forward again, starting to look aggravated. “And remind me to go over more shit about this situation we’re in.”

“Right.” You walk forward, glancing over your shoulder to check on Karkat. He looks perfectly fine, just grumpy. You probably should read up on the newer demonic codes. “Do you have an instruction booklet? That might be easier.” You say, feeling Karkat slip beside you as you walked.

“No, but I could probably make one. Lord knows it would be better than anything one of those stupid drones came up with.” You snort, and he rolls his eyes.

“I’m sure it would be.”

“I’m electing to ignore that. Don’t we have people to interview?”

“Yeah, but we have to get you changed first.”

“Couldn’t we have just taken the car to wherever the hotel is?” Karkat says, annoyed. You point at the building in front of you, a dirty vacancy sign hanging in the window.

“We’re parked in a public lot, downtown in a small town. Everywhere is within walking distance.” You push the door open and a bell jingles over the door. Karkat looks up at it confused, as you greet the woman at the front desk.

“Room for two.” You say, holding up your fingers. The woman looks between the two of you and smiles knowingly.

“Right away, Mr. and Mrs…” She trails off waiting for you to fill in the last name.

“Oh no,” You laugh easily, like you get this all the time, “We just work together.” You smile and pull a leather ID out of your back pocket. You flip it open to show her, “Agent Harley Mulder, FBI.”

The woman smiles at you sweetly and bats her eyelashes, “FBI that’s pretty neat. So you’re single then?”

You look back at Karkat and then at her, “Um, yeah. Listen,” You lean forward on the desk, and look at her over your glasses, “we’re actually in the middle of a case, very hush hush. But we’re hoping to be out of here pretty quickly, so if you could just get us a room with two doubles, I’d really appreciate it.”

The woman giggles and presses a few buttons on her computer, “You’re all checked in Agent Mulder.” She pulls a key off a peg behind the desk and holds it out to you, “And if there’s anything else you need, I’m working the nightshift tonight.”

Karkat coughs loudly, and you see the woman's eyes move over to him, “I think she’s good, we’re pretty busy with our case.” You smile sympathetically at the woman and take the key from her. You mouth “sorry” and turn back towards the door, grabbing karkat’s arm to drag him out of the building.

Once outside you punch him again, this time in the arm.

“Don’t be rude.”

“Don’t flirt with the first person that’s nice to you.” Karkat says grabbing the key from you. He looks at the number on it and walks towards the similarly numbered door.

“I was being nice!”

“Looked a lot like flirting to me.” He sticks the key in the lock and opens the door. He sighs and barely gets to one of the beds before collapsing onto it. You walk over and nudge his leg with your foot.

“Hey, get up. We gotta change.” He waves his hand at you, indicating you should do that. You shake your head and shrug off your jacket. You look around the room.

“Wait, did you forget the suits?” You ask. Karkat snaps his fingers and a pair of suits falls down onto your head. You move one of the arms on the suit jackets out of your face and glare at Karkat. “I thought you couldn’t teleport.”

“Your anger gave me a nice boost, that was about the extent of my teleporting though. So don’t expect anything anytime soon.” Karkat mumbles from the bed. 

You pull the suits off you and drop one next to Karkat. He grumbles something in his weird demon language and you elect to ignore it. You set your suit down on the free bed and unpack the pieces. You tug your shirt over your head and shake your hair back into place, as you grab the dress shirt off the hanger with the suit jacket. You tug it on and start buttoning the shirt, glancing over at Karkat. Who appears to be watching you.

“Do you mind?” You cock your eyebrow questioningly and finish buttoning your shirt.

“Not if you don’t?” You unbutton your pants and start taking them off. “Sorry I just- you just started stripping.” He says looking away. You nod and pull the suit pants on, tucking the shirt in. You go over to your discarded jacket, smacking Karkat’s leg as you pass, and start rifling through the pockets.

“Get dressed.” You say, pulling a green tie out of your inside pocket. You pop up your collar and drape the green fabric around your neck. Karkat groans from the bed and sits up, shuffling his clothes around. You roll your eyes and tie the fabric into a neat little bowtie. You turn around to give Karkat some privacy and walk to the bathroom to fix your hair. You’ll have to do makeup in the car. You finally have someone to drive, which should make this easier.

You wait a minute before walking back into the room. Karkat is mostly dressed, at least everything is on, but his shirt isn’t buttoned correctly and his tie isn’t tied. You shake your head and walk over to him, swatting his hands away and starting to fix everything.

“Her majesty has taken it upon herself to make me look presentable.” You glare up at him and finish fixing his buttons.

“I don’t want to be seen with a disheveled partner” You say, tying his tie quickly. You tighten it a bit too tight before fixing it, and brush his shoulders to get everything smoothed down. You step back to give him a final look over, and reach up to brush his hair to the side.

“So how much of my mind can you read?” You try to make it sound casual, but you can see Karkat roll his eyes.

“Just surface thoughts. That’s all I’ll ever get without your express permission to dig into the hellscape that is Jade Harley’s mind. Not that I’d ever want to, you hunters are fucked in the head.” You sigh, relieved and a bit offended.

“Alright good. Well I suppose that’s fine then,” You pause thinking, “but only when I say you can listen to my thoughts. Got it?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Karkat raises his hands in mock surrender. “Just say the word, not like I can offer much objection anyway.”

“It’ll probably have to be a sort of signal thing though.” You mutter to yourself. You snap your fingers, getting an idea. “If we’re in a situation where we can’t talk -asl or verbally- I’ll tug my ear twice, then you can read my thoughts!”

“Uh, okay? Wouldn’t it be simpler to just, I don’t know, read them all the time?” Karkat says frustrated.

“You’re not reading my thoughts!”

“I don’t want to read them and I’m not.”

“You stay away from my brain.”

“Oh my god, you’re crazy.” Karkat grumbles, grabbing his clothes off the ground and tossing them on the bed. “Can we just get on with the stupid interviews?”

“They’re more like interrogations.”

“I can do those.”

“I’m sure you can.”


	5. Blood in the Walls (part 3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talk to enough people and you stop apologizing for death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so late, I am so sorry.

You stop at the edge of a suburban neighborhood, noting a park at the top of the street. You park on the street next to the park, flicking off the radio and unbuckling. Karkat is out of the car faster than you are, the door slamming behind him.

“That’s one of the kids.” He says, prompting you to look over at the park and the people, children are climbing over playgrounds. A college student is sitting on a bench on the other side of the mess of equipment. You wonder how Karkat managed to recognize him, you didn’t see him on the news. You step out of the car and shrug.

“We’ll get to him, right now we just need parents.”

“I’m going to talk to him.” You stare at Karkat a little in disbelief, as he walks casually over to the kid in question. You lean against the car, taking a moment to actually collect your head for what you’re going to be doing. You see the guy pull something out of his pocket and offer it to Karkat. There’s a small spark of flame from something Karkat pulled from his pocket and you realize a demon just bummed a cigarette off of some random kid. He actually seems to be talking amiably with this guy, nodding towards you and the car once. You look away reflexively, not a fan of being pointed out to people, and decide to leave Karkat to whatever it is he’s talking about. You spend a few minutes staring at the sky and waiting for your asshole partner to be done smoking with one of the witnesses. Karkat taps the top of the car to get your attention when he comes back.

“I didn’t know you smoked.” You say pushing off the car to start walking.

“Easiest way to start a conversation, and it’s not like smoke actually does anything to me. I’m a demon, shit’s like oxygen to me, or did your tiny human brain manage to forget.” He says, rolling his eyes.

“Shouldn’t encourage that sort of thing. That kid just lost a friend, he doesn’t need cancer on top of that.” You mumble. Karkat is trailing just a step behind you, like you’d told him to earlier. You wonder how long orders are set in place for.

“I’m literally an embodiment of filth and sin. You think I give a fuck about smoking with some punk kid?” Karkat scoffs. You huff, turning to glare at him. This is going to be a long day.

“You want to be quiet again?”

“Not particularly.” He says casually, shrugging. Ugh, he sounds like Dave. You can only deal with one “cool kid”.

“Just try to keep quiet when I’m interviewing people.” You say, focussing back on the houses. Karkat turns up the path of a house, not even waiting for you. This pisses you off, and you follow him a bit more angrily than you’d like. You don’t even know why he’s stopping at this house, it isn’t the dead kid’s house.

“Friend’s house.” He says looking at you as you climb the porch steps to join him at the door. “Try to look professional.”

You could honestly hit Karkat right now. Smug is not a good look on him. You wonder what your cousin would think of him. Probably nothing good. The thought gives you a little confidence.

“What are you thinking?” Karkat asks, ringing the doorbell.

“That my cousin would murder you.” You say, smiling as you hear the door unlock.

The door is opened by a guy, who looks to you like he’s only about nineteen. The guy’s a solid six feet, and lanky as all hell. He blinks at you and Karkat, taking in your appearance. Suits and smiles in a suburb.

“What are you supposed to be?” The guy says, leaning against the door. You smile warmly at him and pull your fake FBI ID out of your jacket. It’s the little things, and out of the corner of your eye you almost think Karkat looks impressed at how naturally you flip open the case.

“We’re from the federal bureau of investigation, would you mind answering a few questions?” You say, holding out the badge for the guy to inspect.

“You two got a warrant?” He says, smirking. Karkat rolls his eyes.

“We’re the FBI, we’re not here about the weed.” Karkat scoffs, very unprofessional. The other guy, looks taken aback by the statement though.

“Excuse him, he’s new.” You say, smiling as apologetically as you can. “We’re actually here about your friend, Jack.”

“Oh. C-come on in?” He says looking at Karkat confused as he stands aside to let you in. You look around as you enter the house. The guy leads you into a living room and you sit down on the couch, Karkat following your lead.

“So…”

“John, uh, John Carlton.” John says sitting down in a chair next to the couch.

“So, Mr. Carlton. As I said, your friend Jack has become the subject of my partner and I’s investigation-” You start, but you’re cut off.

“Why’s the government investigating Jack?” John says, leaning forward.

“We think he might be the victim of a serial killer we’ve been investigating.” You say calmly, clasping your hands in your lap. This living room is nice you note. Green wallpaper, and lots of family pictures on the wall.

“A serial killer?” John says, his eyebrows raising in disbelief.

“I’m afraid so. You’re quite lucky to have gotten out of that house with little more than a scare.” You tell him, it’s a story he can tell at parties, perhaps to a therapist.

“I- wow, I never thought…” He sighs a little shakily, running a hand through his hair.

“I know this must be hard for you.” You say softly, looking at him sympathetically. “But if there’s anything you can tell us, about that night, something that might have separated him, made him stand out…”

“No, no, there wasn’t…” He thinks for a moment. “Actually, there was- ok this is going to sound stupid but… He was hitting on this girl all night, they went off together at one point and that’s about when we found him.” His voice breaks and he shakes his head. “Oh God, I still can’t believe it.”

“We’re so sorry for your loss.” You say, standing, Karkat stands as well. “Thank you for your information, we’ll leave you to collect yourself. Good day sir.”

“You’re gonna catch this guy right?” John says, looking up at you. You nod.

“We plan to Mr. Carlton.”

“Good.”

***

Karkat shuts the door to John’s house behind you, and looks seriously at you.

“So, that was something.”

“Just business.” You say, walking down the steps of the porch and down the walkway. 

“You just told that guy he could have been murdered.” Karkat says, he almost sounds angry. You turn around to face him.

“He could have been. Him and everyone else that went into that house.” You nearly snarl at Karkat. He takes a step back, holding up his hands.

“Calm down Harley. I just don’t think it was necessary.”

“Trust me. It was.” You say, turning back and walking off the property to continue your way down the street. Karkat falls into step behind you, glancing around the neighborhood with vague disinterest. It isn’t long before you’re standing in front of the correct house.

It’s yellow, the only reason you make note of this is because it’s an ugly yellow, it reminds you of piss. The door is brown, which given your previous observation doesn’t seem like a good choice to you. At least their yard is nice, they have some hydrangea bushes that are falling out of bloom. You walk up the steps, thankfully whitewashed wood, and knock on the door. They have a wreath of wine colored roses on the door under the frosted window near the top, weird choice.

A woman answers, wiping her hands on a cloth and staring at you.

“Can I help you?”

“Yes ma’am. We’re from the federal bureau of investigation.” You show her your fake ID. “My name is Harley Mulder, my partner Jonas Scully. Do you mind if we come inside and ask a few questions?” She blinks at you a few times, looking at your ID and then at Karkat, who has been quiet.

“What is this about?” She asks, stepping aside to let you in. You smile and brush past her, Karkat following closely behind.

“We’re investigating a string of murders and we believe your son Jack may have been the most recent victim.” You say watching the woman place her hand over her heart and sit down in the nearest chair.

“You could have told her to sit down first.” Karkat whisper yells at you.

“My Jack, murdered…” She covers her mouth, looking like she’s about to cry. It is a pretty fresh wound. “Honey!” The woman calls, and a man comes walking out of the kitchen.

“I heard.” He turns to you and Karkat, waving you over to the couch to sit down. “What’s this about?”

“Well as I said sir. My partner and I are investigating a serial murderer, and with the circumstances of your son’s death, we believe he may have been one of their victims.” You start, Karkat cuts you off.

“We realize this must be hard for you to hear, but um…” He falters, looking at you for help.

“Excuse my partner, he’s new.” You say quickly, trying to get rid of the confused stares from the couple in front of you. “We just want to know if you had noticed anything off about the house he was found in, in the days leading up to his death. Figures in windows, open windows or doors, a car in the driveway. Anything you may have noticed, no matter how small.”

“No, no I don’t think so.” The man says, shaking his head and looking to the woman to see if she had something to add. He has his arm around her shoulders, trying to be comforting.

“Old houses like that always seem to have moving curtains and such. I’d blame that more on a draft than anything else though.” The woman says.

***

It takes another ten minutes to get through your questions, seeing as you need to make it seem like you’re looking for a person and not a ghost. The woman, who’s name you learn is Mary at some point, had offered you coffee but you politely declined. Karkat had looked like he was getting antsy, you figured it was good to leave while ahead.

Karkat spends the next hour grumbling about how you shouldn’t launch right into potential murderers when interrogating people, you can only roll your eyes so many times before it starts to hurt.

It takes you two hours at the library to find the information you need, most of those two hours consists of looking desperately through old newspaper articles and random city papers, trying to find the coroner’s report or a funeral report for the lady ghost. You find little to nothing to indicate her body ever left the house. Which is both good and bad news, because now you need to actually go into the house. You should be fine, she doesn’t target women as far as you can tell.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thank you so much for reading! This is my first posted fic and I really appreciate it. I plan on continuing the story but since I'm in uni I don't know how often I'll be able to update. I'll try to keep it fairly regular and often but no promises. This work is based off a lovely RP I had a while ago, unfortunately I never got any info from my partner, but a big thank you to them. Questions? Comments? Fanart? Just wanna say hi? message me at baencrocker.tumblr.com


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